Silver Surfer standalone movie to be made by 21st Century Fox

A 'Silver Surfer' movie is in the works at 21st Century Fox despite the franchise being bought out by the Walt Disney Company

A 'Silver Surfer' standalone movie is in the works for Fox.

Back in December, the Walt Disney Company - who own the rights to the Marvel Cinematic Universe - purchased 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion and agreed an all-stock acquisition deal, as well as obtaining other assets from media conglomerate Rupert Murdoch's empire, whilst taking on $13.7 billion of Fox's credit insured debt.

Fox currently own the rights to a number of Marvel comic movie franchises including 'Deadpool', 'X-Men' and 'Fantastic Four' but despite agreeing a deal with Disney, the studio is working on more spin-off movies.

Now, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that comic creator Brain K. Vaughn is currently penning a script for a 'Silver Surfer' standalone movie for Fox.

The Silver Surfer has been around since the early days of Marvel Comics and he features in the pages of 'The Fantastic Four' comics.

He originally was working for Galactus and would travel through space to find planets for the creature to feed on.

Finding his way to Earth, it is up to The Fantastic Four to convince him to help them stop Galactus from destroying the world.

This story was brought to the big screen in the 2007 movie 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer', but fans were disappointed with the family-friendly storyline.

Recently, Marvel Comics writer Stan Lee, 95, admitted he would love to see the character get a movie of his own.

Lee said: "He's the one I want to see more. He's the most philosophical of all the characters I've ever worked on. And I have an idea for my cameo in that one!"

Fox are currently working on two 'X-Men' movies for this year including Ryan Reynolds' 'Deadpool 2' and 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix', but has also planned three more films for next year.

Channing Tatum's 'Gambit' movie is still looking for a director and the new horror-themed movie 'New Mutants' is slated for release next February.

Reynolds and Josh Brolin - who is starring in the 'Deadpool' sequel' - are both reportedly set to star in a spin-off to the Merc with a Mouth franchise, 'X-Force'.

Now, Fox has hired Brian Michael Bendis to pen a currently unknown 'X-Men' project for 'Deadpool' creator Tim Miller, but Bendis said it won't impact on the merger.

He said: "It does not affect this project in any way, shape or form is what I was told.

"At least at the moment, it's certainly decisions over my pay-grade if it ends up doing so."